9 Year Old Student Charged With Shooting Classmate

A student, age nine, who attended third grade at Armin Jahr Elementary School in Bremerton, Washington, is being accused of bringing a hand gun to class on Wednesday in his backpack. It went off and wounded another classmate in her abdomen and arm. The classmate injured, eight year old Amina Kocer-Bowman, was in intensive care at a hospital in Seattle, Washington, in critical condition.

He has been charged with three crimes, possession of a firearm on school grounds, third-degree assault, and unlawful possession of a firearm. If he is convicted of these crimes, each one carries thirty day detention, one hundred fifty hours of community service, and a year of probation. At this time the judge has ordered the student on a fifty thousand dollar bone until a hearing on March 7th. At this hearing they will decide if the student has the ability to determine wrong from right.

His uncle is his legal guardian because his father’s parental rights have been terminated. According to a probation officer from the juvenile court, the student’s parents had criminal histories that were extensive. When the incident happened on Wednesday, the school went into immediate lock down and opened on Thursday.

When the police and school staff checked the student’s backpack, they found a.45 caliber Heckler and Koch pistol that was loaded. There was a hole ripped open in the bottom. The gun went off when he slammed his book bag on his desk. According to two other students, the boy had told them earlier that he was planning to bring his father’s gun to the school and then run away but the father states that the gun was not his.